Jess of the Rebel Trail eBook

“That is just what I do fear,” Mrs. Tobin
replied. “Sam’l was always a little
soft about women, and there are too many bad hussies
in the city. When a man is away from home as
much as he is, you can never be sure what he’s
up to. Why, even now he might have one of them
brazen creatures on board. No, there’s
no fool like an old fool when it comes to women.”

“But Eben’s with him, isn’t he?
The captain wouldn’t surely cut up any capers
with his son on board.”

“Eben! H’m! Little good would
he be. He lives in the clouds when he isn’t
eating and sleeping. He wouldn’t notice
anything wrong with a dozen hussies on board.
I don’t know what I’m going to do with
that boy.”

“You are certainly worried about your family,
Mrs. Tobin.”

“Indeed I am, and no one knows it as well as
I do. I’m not even certain of Flo.
She has notions of her own which don’t at all
agree with my way of thinking.”

John smiled broadly as he bade the woman good-bye,
and left the house. Mrs. Tobin amused him greatly,
and he was thinking of the lively scene that would
take place when the captain came home.

CHAPTER XVI

MOKE THAN A DREAM

Very little sleep came to Mrs. Hampton that night.
The disturbing events of the day still agitated her
mind, giving her much anxiety. Grimsby’s
visit was the principal cause, for she felt that she
could not trust the man, notwithstanding the money
he had received and his promise of secrecy.
Was her child alive? she asked herself over and over
again. Her heart called out for even the slightest
knowledge of the one she had bartered for money.
Money! The thought stung and almost maddened
her. She had given her own flesh and blood for
money, and her punishment was rapidly increasing upon
her. Her sin had followed her through the years,
and had now suddenly enmeshed her. The steady
tick of the clock seemed like an accusing voice to
her hot brain, and the gentle motion of the blind
at the open window annoyed her. She fancied
it knew of her guilt and was mocking her. She
was learning, as others have learned, that to the
conscience-stricken heart and mind all things, even
the inanimate, are banded together in a conspiracy
of mockery and revenge.

She wondered, too, about John’s strange behaviour.
What was his special call to the quarry, and what
was the secret he was keeping from her? He had
never acted in such a manner before, and he only stayed
from home at night on an occasional visit to the city.
Had he fallen in with evil companions? She
banished this idea, however, when she recalled how
he had told her that he had a surprise in store for
her, and that it was a pleasant one. Try as
she might, she could not imagine what that might be,
for the thought of a woman never once entered her
mind. Not for an instant could she imagine John
being in love, so engrossed was he with the affairs
of the farm and the mine.